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Kolkata's pain in party’s gain

Five lakh Trinamool Congress supporters brought a city of 14 million to its knees on Saturday, as the chief minister presided over a traffic-choking rally in the heart of Kolkata.

TNN | Updated: Jul 22, 2012, 06:33 IST

KOLKATA: Five lakh Trinamool Congress supporters brought a city of 14 million to its knees on Saturday, as the chief minister presided over a traffic-choking rally in the heart of Kolkata. The sea of people that dwarfs the Maidan on July 21 every year packed into the streets of Esplanade.
It was a regular picnic — rallyists frolicked in the protected lakes of Victoria Memorial, hogged entire roads on the way to the rally venue, choked Howrah bridge and turned a political show of strength into an ordeal of pain for the thousands hoping to make a job appointment , attend an interview or reach hospital with some hope still ticking.

The traffic nightmare started in the morning as the Trinamool leadership mustered tens of thousands from the districts to gather at Esplanade in time for Mamata Banerjee’s speech. The squeeze tightened around Esplanade as the day wore on.

“If the heart gets choked, the whole body gets numbed and dies. That is what happened to the city. With the Esplanade getting choked, all north-south and east-west traffic movement got plugged,” said a senior traffic police officer. Bus services were withdrawn after 10am in most places. “Our buses got stuck at different points in the city. So it made no sense to run services any further ,” said Tapan Banerjee of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate.

Traffic on both Howrah Bridge and second Hooghly bridge came to a standstill . AJC Bose Road and APC Road, which are far off from the rally venue, also got choked.

The Metro remained the only lifeline, but there was a mad rush for it. The huge joyriding crowd added to the pressure. The queue for tickets snaked out on to the roads. “There was such a heavy rush that we had to issue printed card tickets at Esplanade , Park Street, Jatin Das Park, Girish Pak and Shyambazar Metro stations. We also operated extra counters,” said Metro spokesperson Pratyush Ghosh.

Most of the rallyists from the districts had arrived the night before but it was the process of ferrying them to Esplanade that stopped the city in its tracks. The thousands streaming in from the suburbs added to the chaos.

Businessman Dipak Raut’s car was stuck at Strand Road for one and a half hours. He appeared furious and despondent at the same time. “When the Trinamool Congress came to power in the state, I hope that there would be full stop to the Left legacy of rallies, roadblockades , bandhs and strikes. But today I feel that I was wrong. There is a change only in regime, not in the mindset,” he said. “I am missing out on valuable business as I sit here twiddling my thumbs. Think of the loss of an entire day for a political rally.”

The TOI reporting team found many thousands of cars struck on JL Nehru Road, AJC Bose Road, Park Street, Camac Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, Ganesh Avenue and Old Court House Street. A number of buses were also stranded. In some places, nothing moved for hours. “Police are allowing only buses bearing the Trinamool flags to move while buses with passengers suffer,” said the driver of a CSTC bus that got stuck near Race Course as early as 11am.

The police seemed swamped by the sea of rallyists pouring in from all corners of the city. A traffic sergeant said, “We are helpless. We have to facilitate the movement of buses and trucks carrying supporters as close to the venue as possible . Naturally, regular commuters bear the brunt. We have put up a traffic advisory that traffic will not be in our control after a certain point of time in the day. This is what happens every time there is a big rally like this at Esplanade or at the Brigade Parade Grounds.”

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